Shadows
by Dark Austral
Summary: A little snippet for Halloween of what could have happened after Haunted.


Disclaimer: I don't own Robin or Slade but thankfully the government allows us to write fanfiction.

A/N: I know, I know. I should be busy writing in Death's New Heir but I'm in the mood to write a spooky Halloween one-shot of Robin's POV. That and I just watched Red Dragon and listening Evanescence's new song Lithium. It just put me in the mood. Hope you enjoy!

-Takes place after Haunted-

**Shadows**

I don't know where to turn. I find myself curled into the fetal position, wide eyes starring into the shadows of my room. Despite it being scarcely decorated, the shadows seem more dominant…more threatening. An autumn wide jingles the window lightly and I am forced to remember that Fall is approaching. The time for death and coldness is creeping through the trees. And let us not forget that one holiday where people get their sick thrills in scaring others is resonating in the air.

Halloween.

I find myself laughing weakly. I celebrated Halloween a bit early this year. People seek out to be haunted by others and in the end can just laugh it off with a joke. But not me, oh no, Slade won't allow me such a denial.

The air conditioner kicks on, blowing shards of ice down on my neck. Curling deeper into my comforter, I try to prevent my body from shivering. My ears pick up a soft groan from somewhere, followed by the light drip of water. A creak makes me spring up from by my small position. Like a rabbit, I sit straight up in bed, listening, eyes darting from the sides. I don't care what Cyborg said about the hallucination dust, my gut is telling me that I was fighting the real Slade. That time in the medical room makes my body shiver controllable. The memory is still fresh in my mind and watching Slade walk towards me with that electric knife, feeling so helpless…so scared.

Fighting back a nauseous feeling, I slide off my bed, bare feet touching the unrelenting cold tile floor. Dragging the comforter with me, I wrap it around my body and trudge to the bathroom. I feel like a small child, waking up from a bad nightmare and sneaking into his parents' room for comfort. But I don't have that safety net anymore, no parents to wash away the fear.

Opening the mirror, I take out a small pill bottle. Lithium. It's becoming my drug, my way to escape the overwhelming depression caused by the guilt of my betrayal. I know I should be fighting it and I was. But tonight just showed me that I wasn't improving. I will never tell my friends what Slade did to me while I was his apprentice, the things he said and did to my soul. He's like a vampire, sucking out my will to live. I twist the cap off and about to shake out my salvation when a warm presence warms my back. The bottle clatters to the ground, pills spilling out like candy from a bag.

My breath starts to hitch. My hands shiver no longer from cold but out-right fear, shaking the comforter from my grip. The bathroom light starts to flicker before bursting into one flash before dying to a dull. It's funny but in the dark I realize that my life would make a great horror film.

His breath tickles the hairs on the back of my neck. His boot lightly steps on the comforter that is splayed around me feet.

"Now, now, Robin. It's not healthy being in love with your guilt. It might lead one to a mental breakdown."

I want to retort, believe that it's just the dust again. But, somehow my gut is telling this is the real thing. That Slade is not a ghost but a demon, his forked tongue searing into my soul, sending my mind shattering into out-right fright.

He whispers words of torture. With poetic imagery, he weaves into my mind images of my friends' deaths. I run through the halls, screaming at them to run away. Run away before the bad man finds them. I don't want him to get them, like how he got my parents. They try to calm me down, but they don't understand the urgency. They think it's just the dust, an early Halloween joke. I begin to physical force them to get away. If I distance myself from them, then maybe He won't hurt them.

Yet, I'm too late. I'm always too late. Slade comes out of the shadows, his gray eye focusing on the most innocent of our group. Tiny spiders spring out of nowhere and begin to ravage her body. Her shrieks scorch my mind. Next, it is the Changeling, his body dragged into the depths of the earths by inhuman claws. A blast hits my back. Turning around, I watch as my best friend is flown up into the air by some monster, forever gone. Eyes, that had long lost their will to cry, focus on a woman that I have grown to love. With not much of a blink, I watch as her body wrenches over in pain, tears streaming down her pale cheeks before her body disappears in a blinding burst of light.

Magically before me, the bottle of pills appears before me. They can take away me away from this nightmare. I want that numbing feeling back. I don't want to be scared anymore. I don't want the nightmares. I don't want to celebrate death or dress up in costumes of other heroes or villains. I just want to be me, a small little boy still afraid of the dark, of the things that go bump in the night.

I take a step forward and soon a volley of shadows spring forth, drawing back to where He stands, the Master of Darkness. I struggle, trying to wrench myself free from the bonds. My hands reach for the bottle, but it gets farther and farther away. A scream tears from my throat as the bottle disappears entirely and a shadowed arm encompasses all that I see.

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A scream echoes down the pale-lit hall. Bruce Wayne watches with pain-filled eyes as his ward scampers into the corner of his small room. Wild blue eyes dart back and forth as if searching for something. Finally, they settle on his form and a rare spark of concern shimmers.

"You have to get out! He'll see you! He'll hurt you. I can't…the things…no…I don't want to watch…stop it…no…" Shaking his head back and forth, Richard looks down at Bruce's feet. "Where is it? Where is it? I want it…please…I need it!"

The boy's heart-wrenched pleas splinter Bruce's heart even more. The Titans had wanted to visit their former leader but the last time they met, Richard had attacked them with a wild, unrestrained violence. Even now, the doctors didn't permit Bruce to enter the cell. He could only look on through the plexi-glass custom to Arkam Asylum as Richard crawled to the window, his arms tied around him in a straight jacket.

Despaired blue eyes met lost crystal blue. Bruce knew that look, he had seen in one to many faces. Richard was being haunted. The Titans said that it was this hallucinogen dust that made him see Slade. They had thought Robin was cured, that he was ok. But, they were wrong. It seemed that the dust was only the last nail in the coffin before Richard finally shattered. Bruce couldn't help but think that maybe one day he would end up in the same position.

Kneeling down, he placed a Snickers Bar inside the food tray bin. Closing it, he watched as Richard viewed the chocolate bar as if it was some foreign object.

"Happy Halloween, Richard." Getting up, Bruce forced himself to make his way back to the outside world. He knew that Richard never liked Halloween. That every year after his parents' death, the boy no longer saw the point of trying to scare other people or dressing up. But, he hoped that maybe these little visits would make the boy break free from the insanity that plagued his mind.

Glancing once more down at the cell, he watched Richard throw the chocolate bar against the window, screaming, before once more trying to pry himself free from the jacket in order to hurt himself--something the Titans told that Robin did when he imaged Slade attacking him. Doctors streamed to Robin's cell, ready to calm the boy down before he injured himself. Bruce closed his eyes to prevent the tears from falling. He knew now why Richard never liked Halloween.

Why pretend that ghosts, goblins and demons only come out once a year to haunt and scare you, when in reality they do it every waking second?

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A/N: Well, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I was hoping for a scarier one but this is what came out. I should be going to bed, but I'm wide-awake and tried to finish this. So, there's my POV, back to my other fanfic. Bye!


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